I LIKE MOST STARTED WITH A JACKET BCD. WHY THAT IS WHAT THEY HAD TO OFFER AT THE LDS. OOPS. then attempts to do something productive reveiled tht the inflation negated the pockets usage in the vest. I then went to a trans pac and found that i did not have the binding that was there in the vest. good feeling. except for the face in the water thing . a bit of adjustment and that problem became history. my bouyancy becamme pretty good considering the weight was still on my waist. i now have gone to a bp/w and have the needed weightin the center of my torso instead of at the bottom of it. . i think any type will work. however you have to look at what you are giong to do now and what you may do with it in the future. 500.00 plus for a change of mind is expensive. i would recommend you look into some of the dir areas as well as the bouyancy areas. the latter is most important. i am not dir one way fits all extreemist. but the basic comcepts of dir is sound. just not everyones cup of tea i guess one could say. the more you move to the bp/w the more virsitility you find you have. also look into hogarthian diving. perhaps some reaserch into the gue/ fundimentals and skills developemnet stuff.

when you look into some of this , look for the reasons things are done the way they are and decide what you need to achieve your needs. not only is this a vest or bp question but it is more an issue of what will serve you the best. sizing for instance is important. with a vest you have s/m/l 30-40-50 lb lift. you put on a few lbs and the lift is not right or the vest does not position the lift correctly and then you are the michileen man. wet suit or dry suit has different lift requirements. unless you put all these things into the equation it will be hard to arrive at the right answer for you. for me i have a bp/w i have 2 wings, one for doubles and another for singles i have additonal bp weights for the bp for dry suit diving. now fresh water salt water and wet dry suit single or doubles have 8 different combinations possible. with out the bp/w i may need 3 or more jacket bc's and a ton of weight to accomplish the variations that the single bp/w can provide. of course this is all moot if you are always going to dive in 30 ft of 80 degree fresh water.